Polish Lessons
by foetus-in-scrubs
Summary: One-shot: After Zosia volunteered to look after Emma while her babysitter was off sick, Jac returns the favour by letting the junior doctor teach her and her daughter some Polish.


**This is just a drabble thought up at 4 a.m. that I posted on Tumblr (also foetus-in-scrubs) a couple weeks ago.**

* * *

"I give up!" exclaimed Jac, frustrated. She stood up from the table and slumped onto the sofa. After Emma's babysitter had called Jac a week ago informing her she was sick with the flu, Zosia had immediately volunteered to look after the infant on some of her days off while Jac was at work, and in return Jac had reluctantly agreed for the junior doctor to teach both her and Emma some of her native language. A decision she was now strongly regretting. Emma was still very young, but she was an incredibly quick learner, pronouncing the words Zosia taught her with ease and remarkable accuracy. Today's word list for Emma had consisted of foods, which had taken the child no more than thirty minutes to master.

"Come on, Jac," chuckled Zosia, "only two words left to go for today and that's it. If Emma can manage ten words, so can you. Right, Emma?"  
While Jac had continued to struggle with the odd vowels and chains of consonants of her own word list, her daughter had preoccupied herself by drawing what she intended to be the flower vase in front of her. At the sound of her name, the sandy-haired girl looked up from her colourful scribbles and nodded energetically, smiling gleefully up at her mother, before returning her focus to her artwork. Like any other child her age, her drawing would have done Picasso proud.

"Fine," Jac sighed, "where were we?"

" _Klatka piersiowa._ " Zosia pointed to the sheet of paper containing the list of words.

"And that means…?"

"Ribcage."

"You couldn't just let me learn food, could you!" Jac retorted in her signiture sarcastic manner.

"It might come in handy one day, you know, you being a cardio-thoracic surgeon and all. So stop arguing and repeat after me. _Klatka piersiowa._ "

Jac repeated after her once, twice, three time. Each time, Zosia patiently corrected her minor mistakes, gently encouraging her fiery-haired consultant until she got it absolutely perfect.

"It's a soft _'sh'_ , like in _'Zosia'_. Relax and just let the sound flow." And so she repeated again. The first time Zosia had come to her flat, Jac had been impressed with how well Zosia was able to teach both her and her daughter. She had so naturally bonded with Emma, who was delighted to have a new playmate, and showed no difficulty in keeping the child's attention during her visits.

"See? Perfect." Zosia beamed, her contagious smile immediately infecting Jac who couldn't stop her lips from gently curving upwards.

"And the last one–" Jac began, but she was interrupted by Emma jumping out of her seat, her childish clumsiness causing her to nearly topple over.

"Mummy, I'm hungry!" the infant whined as she rushed towards the kitchen, crayons still held tightly between her chubby fingers.

Jac stood up from the sofa to follow, but Zosia held her back, meeting her eyes intently.

"Hold on, you're not finished yet. The last one is _serce_."

" _Serce_." Jac repeated, maintaining her gaze.

"It means heart." Zosia said softly, leaning in to meet Jac's lips for a quick, rewarding kiss before pulling her along to the kitchen where Emma would no doubt be waiting for both of them.

"What do you want to eat, Em?" Jac called through the doorway. Emma stood by the counter scanning the kitchen, her brows furrowed in careful consideration.

" _Jabłko!_ "

Jac glanced down proudly at her daughter, raising her brows at Zosia requesting a translation, but the younger woman was already distracted.

" _Pięknie Emma, dawaj piątkę!_ " Zosia praised enthusiastically, kneeling down to give Emma a high-five. Emma responded laughing joyfully, raising her tiny hand and colliding it with Zosia's large one with all the strength a 3-year-old could muster.

Jac hesitated before she spoke, not wanting to break their little bubble. "Any chance I could take your orders?"

"Oh, sorry." Zosia straightened up from the floor, still holding onto the little girl's hand. "She just wants an apple."

Jac reached for the cutting board and took an apple from the fruit basket on the counter. "Perhaps you could teach me to say 'slice' while I'm still in the mood?" She grabbed a knife from the drawer and carefully began preparing the apple.

" _Pokroić_." Zosia replied effortlessly.

"That's a no then," an amused Jac concluded.

Perhaps learning Polish wasn't such a bad idea after all.

(Well, not for Emma, anyway.)

* * *

 **Author's note: _pięknie Emma, dawaj piątkę_ literally means _beautiful Emma, give [me] five_. The translations for everything else should be embedded in there. **


End file.
